Question

How can you say that the Brook cut's a joke of human beings?

Answer 1

The Brook cuts a joke at the human beings is a statement true if we look at the parallelism drawn by the poet between the brook and the life of human beings.  TheBrookk, immediately after its origin from the 'haunt of coots and herons', is agile and noisy like a kid. During the course of its flow, after it comes to the plains, it becomes slower and quiet which indicates the state of maturity in the human beings. By means of the refrain '...men may come and men may go, but I go on forever', the brook establishes its superiority over the human beings as man is bound to die and is mortal, but the Brook boasts of its immortality repeatedly which can be his cutting a joke at human beings as on the one hand the poet has personified the Brook and on the other hand he makes the brook eternal.